I do downtown Oakland to Mountain View in 45-70 minutes, depending on traffic. It's bad, especially at rush hour (or during any unpredictable traffic delay), and moving to MV is one of my goals for 2012. However, if you don't have to go to the office every day, and if you sometimes go to SF instead, it's possible to buy a 1BR/1BA condo in downtown Oakland for about $100k. Just don't count on using any city services (schools, Oakland PD, hospitals), or going anywhere worthwhile (other than whole foods) without driving to SF or Mountain View, or maybe Berkeley or Emeryville.